


Father's Day on Elm Street

by shulamithbond



Series: A Dad on Elm Street (or, the Terrible Idea AU) [1]
Category: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Father's Day, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fatherhood, Gen, Other, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 03:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3553748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shulamithbond/pseuds/shulamithbond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pretty much what the title says. Freddy and Katherine/Kathryn share their first Father's Day since Freddy's death. Feels ensue!</p><p>Thanks to Kathrynkruegers on Tumblr for all of these ideas, both for the AU and for these prompts, I should have credited zir sooner!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Father's Day on Elm Street

Cleaning the blood out of the nooks and crannies of his glove could get a little tiresome, but Freddy Krueger knew from experience that he had to do it, or else the thing’s hinges would get too gummed up to work, not to mention the rusting and blunting. On this particular day, deceptively sunny and warm, he was almost done when he smelled something burning.

After the initial panic, he started thinking about Katherine. He liked to think he’d gotten better at taking care of her by himself, but clearly that was bull if he was still enough of a damn idiot to leave her alone in the house for as long as he had. Freddy had always had a talent for getting meticulously absorbed in tasks that related to doing what he loved best - murder - and now he’d lost track of the time and his daughter was paying the price for her father being negligent in addition to a murdering shitbag  _and she might already be burning_  -

“ _Kathy!_ ” he was already bellowing as he burst out of the basement door, even as his brain slowly caught up to the rest of him and he realized nothing was on fire. Something smelled a little charred, sure, but it was more like the smell of his first attempts at cooking dinner than an actual fire. There was a mess in the kitchen and a faint haze of smoke in the air (he needed to check that smoke detector; it hadn’t gone off), and there was also Katherine looking up at him with an absolutely guilty expression on her face, but for now, all Freddy could do was pick her up and pace around with her in his arms for a little while, until he felt calmer.

“What the he - what were you doing?” he demanded, when he could talk and feel normal anger again. “Thought they taught you in school, you never touch the stove without a grown-up around”-

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she said, in the quiet voice she used when he started yelling. He’d been doing that more often since he’d died. That was probably bad for a kid to hear.

“Don’t do it again, okay?” he continued, lowering his voice and trying to calm down a little. “Just ask me for help next time.”

Katherine actually sighed, as if he was being ridiculously dumb. “I couldn’t, Daddy.”

“Oh, yeah? Why not?”

“Because it was supposed to be a surprise.” She looked down. “I made a card at school and everything. But I ruined it.” She looked as sad as she had when he was yelling.

“No, you didn’t ruin it, Princess,” he reassured her. “What was the card for?”

“Teacher said today was Father’s Day.” Katherine squirmed to get down, so Freddy put her down a little reluctantly, and she ran to her backpack to get out a folded piece of blue construction paper. It was adorned with stickers and two blobby stick figures. One of them was wearing a hat. Careful but clumsy letters in green marker read, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, and then, LOVE, KATHERINE.

“Oh,” said Freddy’s mouth. “Right.” He straightened back up, not sure what to do with the card; he ended up laying it on an end table for now. “Thanks, Princess. It’s beautiful.”

She looked down again. “I wanted to make pancakes for you.”

Freddy didn’t want to look at the mess in the kitchen yet; he already knew it would be hell to clean up. He didn’t want to think about his still-not-clean-glove down in the basement, either. For now, he decided, the best thing to do was to focus on the one person in the whole world who loved him, enough to make him cards and try to cook pancakes for him.

“Thanks, Princess,” he said again, picking her back up. “You didn’t ruin anything.” All this stuff she’d wanted to do for him, and she thought  _she_ needed to apologize. “Tell you what I want to do for Father’s Day: I want some ice cream. Let’s go get some, huh?”


End file.
